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CNN is reporting that the Texas 3rd District Court of Appeals has ruled that the State should not have removed the more than 460 children it took from a polygamist sect's ranch. The Court found in favor of 38 women who had appealed the removals, as well as a decision last month by a district judge that the children will remain in state custody.

"The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the department's witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger," the three-judge panel said.

The state's Department of Family and Protective Services "did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty," the judges ruled.

The mothers of the children argued the State should have proved that the children's health or safety was in danger; that there was "an urgent need for protection" that required immediately separating the children from their parents; and that the State made "reasonable efforts" to avoid removing the children.

Because the State failed to provide such proof, the mothers further argued, the District Court -- which backed the department's seizure of the children -- "was required to return the children to their parents and abused its discretion by failing to do so."

You can read the ruling here. (warning: pdf file)